Poultry and Eggs 



are Big Business 



How The Baumann's Make Chickens And Eggs Pay On 

 Their 40 Acre Lake County Farm 



HAT tone of derision with 

 *which many a corn-belt farmer 

 greets any reference to his wife's 

 chiclcen and egg business is due for some 

 hard knocks in the coming months. For 

 lo and behold, the big poultry and egg 

 men and women of the country are get- 

 ting set, like some of their fine-feathered 

 proteges in the barnyards of America, to 

 hatch out a whopping International Poul- 

 try Congress at Cleveland, July 27 to 

 Aug. 7. 



For several months, in fact since last 

 Fall, the advance couriers have been 

 whooping it up and beating the bushes 

 for financial and moral support, all of 

 which should cause us to pause and de- 

 liberate on what the shouting is all about. 



When you get the facts and statistics 

 of this poultry business laid out in front 

 of you, then talk to some of the pro- 

 ducers who really go in for chickens and 

 eggs, you are left convinced that Her 

 Majesty, the Hen, as well as her long 

 retinue of attendants, have something to 

 cackle about. 



Take the family of Farm Bureau mem- 

 ber William Baumann of northwestern 

 Cook county, for instance. They might 

 not know that gross farm poultry sales 

 in the United States normally run better 

 than a billion dollars annually as they did 

 throughout the late '20s; that poultry 

 income in Illinois ranks next to hogs, 

 com, milk and cattle, or that Illinois 

 ranks third in poultry nationally. But 

 they can tell you just how important is 

 their 750 hen flock of big White Leg- 



horns toward making their 40 acre farr-. 

 pay. 

 The facts are all there in the Bau- 



mann's poultry account book, figures that 



will make you dairymen, hog producers, 

 cattle feeders and corn and wheat growers 

 sit up and take notice. For several 

 thousand dollars of income a year from 

 a modest investment (plus plenty of 

 intelligently directed effort) would be 

 welcome on any man's farm. 



The year the Baumanns kept poultry 

 cost accounts (Oct. 1, 1935 to Sept. 25, 

 1936), in cooperation with the Cook 

 County Farm Bureau and state extension 

 service they stood near the top among 

 all Illinois account keepers in egg produc- 

 tion, efficiency and economy, and net re- 

 turns. Egg sales that year totaled 7710 

 dozen from a flock of 680 hens and 

 brought a cash income of $2,145.24 at 

 prices which ranged from 23 cents (when 

 production was heaviest) up to 40 cents 

 per dozen during the 12 months. The 

 closeness of this farm to Chicago and its 

 many suburbs gives the Baumanns a little 

 better market than average. Yet they 

 have few "premium" customers. 



The Baumann flock was far better than 

 average of account keepers in such things 

 as size of flock, per cent of pullets, eggs 

 per hen, expense per hen, per cent of 

 hens that died (only 7.9 per cent against 

 an average of 23.7 per cent), per cent 

 of chicks died, per cent eggs produced, 

 selling price, returns per $100 feed fed, 

 and so on. 



But the simple figures that tell most 

 about the Baumann poultry enterprise 



THE FOUR BAUMANS WORK TOGETHER 

 From the lait ore Elmer, William Baumon. Mrs. Bauman. 

 emd Ethel. The poultry flock is a chief source of income. 



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WILLIAM BAUMAN AND A STAB 



PERFORMER 



'It takes about all of one man's time" 



are these: 141 eggs per hen for the year, 

 $3.62 gross income per hen, $2.17 ex- 

 pense or $1.45 net income per hen after 

 paying all costs including depreciation. 

 The flock returned $211 for every $100 

 of feed fed which compares with the 

 average in the state that year of $132. 



If you ask Mr. Baumann who should 

 have the credit, he'll tell you it was his 

 wife. And Mrs. Baumann will tell you 

 that daughter Ethel keeps the books and 

 does much of the housework so as to 

 release her for the outdoor work. Son 

 Elmer gives a hand too, when he isn't 

 busy looking after the 10 cow Holstein 

 and Guernsey dairy herd or working in 

 the field. Usually the men do the heavier 

 work such as cleaning out the pwultry 

 pens and in slack times, some of the 

 feeding, watering and egg gathering. 



"It takes about all of one man's time 

 to look after the flock," said Baumann. 

 "We clean out the drops about once a 

 week, clean the floor and put on fresh 

 litter every two weeks." The eggs are 

 usually gathered four times a day. 



The Baumann Leghorns don't get any 

 fancy feed. They use an egg mash formu- 

 la they got years ago from the Farm 

 Bureau made up mostly of ground com, 

 ground oats, meat scrap, alfalfa leaf- 

 meal, cod liver oil and salt. The mash is 



WHITE LEGHORNS LAY THROUGHOUT 

 THE WINTER 

 The Bauman flock averaged 141 eggs 

 and S3.62 gross income per hen. 



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